January 4, 2005 - Can America afford to borrow $350 Million for the Southeast Asian people whose lives have been devastated by Mother Nature’s vivid reminder that it is she that rules the planet? I use the word “borrow” instead of “spend” because in the Bush economy every new dollar of government spending is borrowed money. This month the Administration will ask the Republican controlled Congress to borrow another $100 Billion to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – wars that have already claimed almost as many lives as Mother Nature took last week and promise to take more. The Congress will also consider changing the formula by which American workers Social Security benefits are calculated so as to cut back the benefits the United States promised by one third. It is the first step to borrowing $1 Trillion to siphon off 4 percent of Social Security revenues to Wall Street. In that context borrowing a paltry $350 Million seems insignificant.

We say that America is a generous and humane nation – and throughout our history we have been. Yet we had to be shamed into borrowing to save lives less than one percent of the amount we have been willing to borrow to take lives. In this day of instantaneous world wide communications the people of the world know the context and in that context we deserved to be called “stingy” as we announced that America would contribute only $35 Million at the same time we told the world that we would spend $40 Million to throw a party for the President on January 20th.

America did not cause the earthquake in the deep ocean floor that caused the damage to human lives that the irresistible force of nature wrought around the Indian Ocean. America is, however, still the strongest economic force on the face of the planet – even if China is giving us a run for our money – quite literally OUR money. America is still the nation that has historically been known for its generous spirit even to the point of lifting up its bitterest enemies following World War II. The real question is not whether America can afford to contribute but whether America can afford to spend only the meager amount it has committed to meet the needs of the millions made destitute by devastation wrought by nature or by war.

In this disaster is the opportunity to demonstrate to the world and especially to the non-Christian world that the United States and her people are not a colossus bent on conquest but rather a people of character whose sympathetic words presage a commitment to act compassionately. It must be our public and private policy to provide to the nations coping with the devastation of nature and of war all of the resources necessary to restore to them what they have lost. It was in that way that we restored, preserved, and extended democracy in Europe. It was in that way that American style economic development bested its cold war rivals. And it is in that way that we will drain the oceans of discontent and disposition in which the agents of terror swim around the world.

In this disaster we are given the opportunity to demonstrate to friend and foe alike that America’s character is that which we claim it to be not that which our enemies fear. We must make it our national mission to house the homeless where ever they may be; to clothe the naked; to feed the hungry; and to give the thirsty drink. America must emerge as the leader of an international effort to use the resources of international organizations to meet the need – to make the United Nations relevant, not to discard it and its constituent organizations as irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of people whether they are in Indonesia or Darfur; in the Congo or Iraq. If America is to be the leader of the international community of nations it must be part of the international community and lead with and out-stretched hand rather than an upraised fist. It is our Christian duty.